Went out today to pick up a few tools for the new workshop. I needed a vise and I was gobsmacked (my favorite new English word) at how much they cost. A 4" vise cost $50 and up and a 6" vise close to a $100. I realize that it isn’t hundreds or thousands of dollars, but just seemed like a lot of money for such a simple device. We aren’t talking high tech here for a bench mounted device that just squeezes together. I was just wondering why they seem so expensive given they are such a low tech piece of equipment? Are steel prices that high? Or iron or whatever they are made of?
Steel and iron are very expensive. I think I paid about $45 for a 4" bench vise a few years ago. I picked up a small anvil on sale for around the same price, and that’s even lower tech. I check Craig’s list for used tools, mostly because I like really old stuff, but I don’t see too many good deals for small tools.
You think $50’s bad? When I did a similar search last year, I was shocked to find out that truly “good” vices are upwards of $600.
Go search for “mechanic’s vice” or “machinist’s vice” and prepare to be terrified by an entire cult of people who appear to worship these apparently simple contraptions. I never knew.
Here’s an 8" vise that looks not entirely dissimilar from the $75 Ace Hardware kind to my untrained eye. The difference? It carries the Wilton brand name and retails new for $3200. There are many more like it on Amazon and elsewhere. Makes your $50 hunk of imported moveable metal seem like a real steal, no?
Try a yard sale…there is a used tool shop here in town-but the guy wants insane prices for his stuff. Most of it is worn to shit-but he asks top dollar for it.
The really expensive vises are made from better quality steel and machined to greater tolerances. I don’t need that level of quality and would gain nothing for paying those prices. And those prices include a substantial profit margin for the manufacturer and retailer that have no justification except for the fancy ‘label’.
Machinist and shop monkey chiming in here: you need to ask yourself how often you plan on using the vise. Do you see yourself getting on it four or five times a day or maybe just twice a month? If the latter a cheap little import clamp-on from Home Despot would probably fill the bill. The former case you’ll want to get something nice that will make work easy and never break, however. For that you going to have to dish out some bucks. It’s all in the usage.
Well, apparently my prices were at the bottom end. I couldn’t imagine spending a few grand on a vise. Time to keep an eye on Craigslist. Better yet, perhaps I should get my ten year old some upper arm strength training . Then he could just stand next to my workbench and … Eh, forget it, that would never fly with the wife.
It is also 248lbs!!
An old vice seems like a perfect Craigslist buy. There’s a couple in my local listings now.
When I bought my house, it came with a old Wilton vice bolted to the workbench. I also picked up a small tableclamp at a hamfest or something for a couple bucks. Both are pretty nice.
I recall visiting the Wilton plant here in Chicagoland about 10-12 years ago. Looks like they closed that one around 2001. It was old, loud and dirty…like you’d expect a metalworking factory to be. I heard that the company was sold and production moved overseas but it does appear that the highend ones are made in America.
Expensive? You sure? This page shows that current steel prices are around 35 cents per pound, depending on the type, but even stainless steel costs around $2 per pound, less than metals like copper, so that must be one heavy vise, or it uses some really exotic steel (but does a vise really need special steel? It isn’t like a drill or hammer where it has to withstand shock and other forces). I’d also think that it would be relatively easy to mass-produce items like these, since that is the main reason I can think of for the high price. For example, nails can be bought for 1-2 dollars a pound.
Expensive compared to days past. That has to include the energy costs of manufacturing and shipping. And the quality of the product is definitely a factor. The wrong alloy will be brittle. I have a small XY table from Harbor Freight that broke under the force of it’s own screw while being tightened, so no more iron from them. And unlike a hammer a vise does have moving parts which have to be machined to a reasonable tolerance for my purposes, greater for others. The jaws and the anvil have to be properly hardened as well. Even at $1 a pound a 4" bench vise could weigh 20 pounds, so that’s $20 just for the unmachined steel. Add the other costs involved and some profit for the seller and $50 is a pretty good price.
Considering the abuse I would expect a vise to take, and the ease of use I would expect to get from it, paying over $100 for one wouldn’t faze me much… a cheap vise would really, really suck, particularly if breaking it caused me to screw up a project I’ve been working on for a while (and may have spent WAY more than $100 on materials for it…).
Plus, NOT THAT I’M PARANOID, a breaking vise means large pieces of very heavy metal falling down to where I keep my toes. Fuck that.
